Felicity Huffman Receives Her Sentence

Brian Ives // Managing Editor, Beasley Media
September 13th, 2019

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BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 13: Felicity Huffman and husband William Macy arrive at John Moakley U.S. Courthousefor Huffman's sentencing hearing for her role in the college admissions scandal on September 13, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)

Earlier today, a Boston judge sentenced actress Felicity Huffman to 14 days in jail for paying $15,000 to inflate her daughter’s SAT scores to help her get into a better college, in what has been referred to as the “Varsity Blues Scandal.”

According to the New York Post, Huffman wept as she apologized to the court and her two daughters for her actions before Judge Indira Talwani handed down the sentence, which also included a $30,000 fine, a year of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.

Huffman, who was accompanied in court by her husband, actor William H. Macy, pleaded guilty to charges that she paid college fixer William “Rick” Singer $15,000 disguised as a “purported charitable contribution” to boost her eldest daughter Sophia’s test scores. Prosecutors asked for her to serve a month in jail, while her lawyers asked to serve probation and community service.

According to the New York Times, Huffman submitted a letter to the court ahead of her sentencing, where she described “being motivated to take part in the cheating scheme by a mix of maternal devotion and fear. She wrote that her insecurity as a parent, which she said was amplified by having a daughter with learning disabilities, made her trust the college counselor she had hired and rely on his advice against her better judgment. The counselor, William Singer, whom prosecutors have described as the mastermind of the admissions scheme, has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges; he has not yet been sentenced.”

Lori Loughlin, another celebrity implicated in the scandal, has not pleaded guilty (as Huffman did); her date in court is October 2.